It’s strange: you can pretty much predict what’s going to happen in this movie if you watched the TV-series and the OVAs. They just kept building up and up to this bubble, which finally bursts in “I want to return to that day”. But heck, this is one of the closest things you’ll see to a perfect movie: anything more or less and it would only have made the movie less memorable. Kimagure Orange Road already set a number of standards in the romance genre that have not been matched ever since, but this movie really is brilliant: it’s one of the best, if not THE best romance movies I’ve seen.

The TV-series were incredibly annoying: the movie is anything but. Gone are the silly hijinks and the annoying teenaged antics. Instead, this movie fleshes out its cast with some really realistic dialogue. I’m really amazed: I already thought that the TV-series was down to earth when it wasn’t annoying, but the movie just adds in a whole new layer of realism, which really allows the characters to shine.

Most romances tend to get a little cheesy because they want to try to be too dramatic and do too much in too little time, but this movie is completely different from that. The characters act subtly and don’t try to create more drama than what’s necessary. Because of that it has a full hour to develop the relatively simple premise of his movie, and it really results into a wonderful conclusion to the Kimagure Orange Road franchise. It should be noted though that you really need to have watched the TV-series if you want to touch this thing: otherwise you’ll just be left in the dark.

This movie can be compared to Tenchi Muyo In Love 2, but even with that kind of a movie, expect even more realism and less forced drama here. The pacing of this movie is slow, but if you managed to sit through the TV-series, then patience shouldn’t be an issue here. It’s really been a while since I watched a teenaged romance that was this grounded in realism.

Storytelling:

10/10 – Grounded in realism, both the quiet and the dramatic parts. Simple, yet extremely effective, with a wonderful ending.

Characters:

9/10 – Uses the main characters from the tv-series brilliantly, and gives them a very satisfying conclusion that many, many modern romances can learn a lot from.

Production-Values:

8/10 – The best animation from Kimagure Orange Road so far.

Setting:

8/10 – Do note: the telekinesis from the TV-series is completely gone. But then again, it has no point in this movie anyway and would only have ended up as an annoying cock-block.

The last two episodes of the TV series had already made transparently clear that the love triangle was on its way out…aside from the fact the rest of show was almost always slanted in favor of Madoka herself.

In other words, anyone who saw the TV ending and thought Hikaru still had any chance would have been fooling themselves.

What the movie does is go one step further and actually resolve the remaining tension proactively in a serious and dramatic fashion, but it wasn’t exactly a surprising twist or anything similar. I would call it a more or less natural outcome of what had come before.

There is a second movie though, but I’d argue it’s more about nostalgia and teasing than actually turning back the clock. It’s also not nearly as good as this one, in my opinion.

This is a pretty brilliant film. Hikaru, who is often annoying in the series, really shines as a character in this movie.

You’re also dead on, I think, in comparing it to the third Tenchi Muyo! movie. The tones are very similar, as is the shift in tone. I Want to Return to That Day is a much better film, of course. TMiL 2 felt out of place, good as it was. Neither did it carry the weight of this film.

Ahhh, thanks for the reminder of maybe the best part of one of my favorite series!

Ok, I watched the two first episodes of the OVA, and I just couldn’t stand any more of it: super powers (WTF?) the cheesiness of the characters, the fan service… It’s like a completely different series from the movie, some bad cross of Maison Ikkoku with Ranma1/2.

So I get the point, a very loooong series where the characters are frozen and the situation remains stuck, the whole thing peppered with gags and side stories, just like Maison Ikkoku. Unwatchable for me.

But I understand that the movie is a powerful end for those that went through the series + OVA, it’s a bit like seeing Tom finally eating Jerry after 3000 episodes, bringing decisive resolution to a pending issue that lasted far too long. I guess that for readers of the manga, the movie was really a kind of poignant coming of age type of experience, having probably read it in their teens, and watched the movie while working or going to the university.

Still, I liked the movie by itself, specially the lovely description of the eighties, I was actually more interested in the little details of the setting than in the main story of the characters.

AlexS: that’s indeed the big problem with Kimagure Orange Road: it is incredibly annoying. I really had to force myself through some of its parts.

It’s not as shallow as you sketch it to be, though, because the TV-series did have its merits. The cast does grow gradually, and especially Madoka is pretty much one of the best romantic interests out there. But yeah, if you couldn’t even sit through two episodes of the OVA, then the entire TV-series is going to be impossible for you.

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AidanAK47

(Wednesday, Mar 4. 2015 02:07 AM)

Hell I stopped writing about seven deadly sins because A: didn’t think anyone cared about it and B: Shounen battle anime are really damn hard to review episode by episode. couple of episodes in you have pretty much said everything you can.
Second one may apply to Durarara here. Really not sure what else I can say about it.

AidanAK47

(Wednesday, Mar 4. 2015 02:02 AM)

I also wrote up a 2014 summery in my spare time. Need to get screenshots and a bit of fine tuning done but I might be able to get that up this week.
And now I really do feel like I have been abandoned. The last time K-Off and Ninja wrote anything was 3 bloody months ago. I feel like a puppy tossed to the side of the road…..or a slasher flick killer pretending to be dead.

AidanAK47

(Wednesday, Mar 4. 2015 01:56 AM)

You guy may have noticed but I am having trouble talking about Durarara. It’s funny. It seems like a lot is happening in that show yet it’s hard to comment on it. Maybe I should have mentioned about the animation studio change. Cause I do think that the art and animation is worse than the first season. Maybe I can bring that up next episode….

Emma

(Wednesday, Mar 4. 2015 01:46 AM)

Its a minor complaint but I never liked David Gibbon’s art and yet another reason why I preferred V for Vendetta was that I felt David Loyd to be the better artist of the two.

Emma

(Wednesday, Mar 4. 2015 01:41 AM)

Scott’s a good director but he has yet to match his older work in terms of films, I love alien, blade runner and black hawk down however.

Bam

(Wednesday, Mar 4. 2015 01:38 AM)

When Kodansha sold the rights to Dreamworks they were hoping to get a Spielberg treatment, and that was the plan until he disrespectfully passed it down to this douchebag. And that’s why Cameron is a lot more considerate just by not throwing the Alita license at the first person he finds in hopes of a movie that’ll make him a few millions over the budget. Ideally tho GitS should be done by none other than Ridely Scott, because of a little movie called Blade Runner.

Emma

(Wednesday, Mar 4. 2015 01:36 AM)

I know that watchmen is more than that though.

Emma

(Wednesday, Mar 4. 2015 01:36 AM)

I guess genre wise I’m a bit at odds with watchmen, I can enjoy mystery themed stories (and crime stuff too) now and then but its a genre I don’t always really get on with.

Emma

(Wednesday, Mar 4. 2015 01:31 AM)

Hmmm, Beckinsale, the underworld movies, those were fun when I was younger but I don’t think that they would hold up very well now =<
Politically I feel more at home with V's graphic novel than watchmen's as it was set in Britain.

Bam

(Wednesday, Mar 4. 2015 01:27 AM)

Rupert Sanders is extremely incompetent and is mostly known for his scandals regarding his fling with Kristen Stewart who played Snow White in that crapfest that he directed, and he’s been seen admiring ScarJo’s beuty; so there’s a 90% chance that he’s just doing this to get into her pants. Put the despicable Avi Arad, who is far beneath an insect in his integrity and humanity, as a producer and you get a good image of what this movie is really going to be.

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